Turkey’s military support for the UN-backed Government of National Accord in Libya has increased Turkey’s hard power in the Middle East after the ongoing Syrian civil war. Whether Libya’s case will end with Turkey’s advantage depends on NATO, and most importantly the US’s approach in Libya. In the meantime, America’s maximum pressure weakens Iran, creating room for Turkey’s increased military intervention and support for militia groups in the Middle East. This increase in Turkey’s presence and influence signifies the rise of another rogue state in the Middle East, replacing Iran’s receding power. In comparing Iranian policy after 1979, when the Islamic regime came to power, with Turkish policy after the Arab Spring, the similarity between the two countries has become more apparent.
Two regimes are looking to rebuild their empire in the region using Islamic ideology. According to the Syrian Organization for Human Rights, the government of Turkey is recruiting and training Syrian refugees, paying them, and sending them to Libya’s civil war. This act by Turkey reminds us of its eastern neighbor, Iran, the country that has been using Afghan refugees and paying them to fight in Iran’s proxy war in Syria. Moreover, Syrian fighters in Libya are claiming that they are there to defend Islam and liberate all of Libya from Haftar’s forces. A similar theme is employed by Afghan fighters, recruited by Iran to fight in Syria, that they are protecting the Shia faith and holy sites. In both cases, the Syrians and Afghanis are mostly undocumented refugees that were promised a way to provide a better life for their families.
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Turkey and Iran’s common enemy is the Saudi Arabian regime. Both are looking to replace Saudi Arabia as representing the Muslim world. Riyadh derives its authority because it controls the holy city of Mecca. Erdogan and Ayatollah Ali Khameini support different sides of conflicts in the countries in the Middle East against Saudi Arabia, but at the same time in some war zones, they are standing against each other such as in Syria.
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